Program helps Cape Breton Aboriginal youth return to the workplace

SaltWire Network

Published: Mar 02 at 9:12 p.m.

Members of the Helping Youth Prepare for Employment/Education program show their medicine bags and other handiwork as they prepare to go on a 12-week work placement. From left to right in the front row are Kelsey Dennis, Tanaya Paul, Hope Marshall, Andle Marshall and Victoria Fraser; in back, from left, are Wynter Dennis, Justice Poulette and Jeremy Knockwood. - Nikki Sullivan

‘This program has been a lifesaver, a life-changer for me’

SYDNEY, N.S. — For Wynter Dennis, you can never have too much HYPE on your side.

Dennis, 26, of Sydney, has been involved in the Helping Youth Prepare For Employment/Education (HYPE) program for the past four weeks. He’s been learning how to get back into the paid workforce, improving his resume and cover letter writing skills, finding out about further training and opportunities in his chosen field of auto mechanics and even getting the chance to take various certificates so he can stand out as applicant.

“This program has been a lifesaver, a life-changer for me,” says Dennis. “I actually come from a pretty rough background with the law and everything.”

Dennis was ready to change his life around for the better when he found out about the program on social media. It gave him the push he needed.

“I looked into it more and I got myself an interview and I got accepted and it was one of the greatest changes I’ve had in a while,” says Dennis. “Before the program, I was going through a real tough time … you know a lot of the stuff they teach you for confidence-building and employer expectations, it was all of that stuff but people involved in it, the staff and the management and the participants, it was a great atmosphere throughout the whole thing and respectful and we worked well as a team by the end of it.”

Dennis is one of eight people from the local area between the ages of 15 and 30 enrolled in the provincewide program that helps at-risk Indigenous youth to work or return to the workforce. The Native Council of Nova Scotia runs the program which will go to 10 communities across Nova Scotia (including twice in Sydney and Dartmouth) over a two-year period, offering four-week pre-employment workshops to be followed by a 12-week work placement. The four-week pre-employment workshop in Sydney ended Friday, paving the way for the upcoming work placements. And just like regular employment, even getting into the program can be a challenge.

“We look at high-risk Aboriginal youth so these are youth that either have little to no work experience — they’re either coming back from a drug- or alcohol-related problem or a criminal record so when we go to do our interviews we look at the participants who need it but also who wants it,” says Coral Paul, HYPE program facilitator. “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink so we need to see the motivation, the dedication prior to being accepted. In this round we had 21 applicants and unfortunately we can only chose eight so basically we chose who really needs the program and our services but also who really wants it, who took initiative because it’s a program to transition them back into the workplace.”

While most pre-employment programs include the usual emphasis on learning how to shine in a job interview situation, those involved in the HYPE program also got to learn more about their culture and heritage, thanks to elder Katherine Sorbey of Membertou, who taught them how to make baskets, wooden stars to place in a grandparents’ ring and their own personal medicine bags.

“Usually the medicine is inside the medicine bag so it’s a sacred, spiritual thing and hopefully they will guard this medicine bag and it will help them if they have hard times,” explained Sorbey who collected various herbs like sage and sweetgrass to place in the handmade medicine bags, which can be worn around a person’s neck. “They can go to their medicine bag and try to get the peace and quiet and take away the anger of whatever the trials they meet along the way.”

For Tanaya Paul, 18, of Membertou, it has all helped to steer her towards a direction in life that appeals to her. She’s looking forward to her upcoming work placement.

“Within the four weeks, we learn how to build our resumes, our cover letters, we did mock interviews, which they told us not what was wrong but they helped us more with the interview and how to boost our confidence in an interview,” said Paul. “They asked us what we wanted to do in our placements and what we wanted to do later in life and so I’d like to be a receptionist for a veterinarian, technician or something in that field.